Thursday, September 22, 2005

Stand and defend a friend

Suppose that someone came to you and said that your neighbor's house had been burgled by the crack-addict son of the local sheriff, out on parole. The person said that they had entered the house and snapped photographs of the burglary in progress, but for obvious reasons they are afraid to go to the sheriff.
You want to see justice done. You show the photos to the local newspaper, relying on their First Amendment protections to shield you.
Instead, what happens is that the identity of the photographer as well as your role in contacting the newspaper is exposed. In this completely corrupt county, the photographer is fined $5,000 and you have to pay a million in legal defense fees. If you fail in the corrupt county courts, you lose your job. You lose everything. But you fight it, because the people need to know that letting crackheads run free because of whose son they are isn't right.
If I were your friend, I would stand by you.
If you are a friend of justice, you should stand by Representative Jim McDermott, the one man in Congress who stood in the way of Newt Gingrich's utter and complete corruption of the American government.

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